Brian Kelly, whose name usually appears on the list whenever NFL teams go searching for a new head coach, has signed a six-year extension with Notre Dame.

The new contract will take him through the 2021 season.

Notre Dame vice president and athletics director Jack Swarbrick made the announcement Friday.

Kelly is 55-23 in six seasons at Notre Dame, and was national coach of the year following the 2012 season with the Irish went 12-0 but lost to Alabama in the BCS national championship game.

Kelly's most recent team in 2015 won 10 games, ranked as high as fourth in the College Football Playoff poll and lost to Ohio State in the BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl, one of the New Year’s Six games.

In 25 years as a college football head coach, Kelly is 226-80-2 (.737). His 149 victories as a head coach since 2001 are more than all but two active FBS head coaches — Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and Ohio State's Urban Meyer.

The deal would make the 54-year-old Kell the second-longest serving Irish coach in history. Knute Rockne coached 13 seasons from 1918-1930 before he died in a plane crash in Kansas at age 43. Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz all coached the Irish 11 seasons.

Swarbrick, who hired Kelly after firing Charlie Weis following the 2009 season, said he is excited about the future of the program under Kelly.

“In the classroom, in the community and on the playing field, Brian has built the foundation of a great Notre Dame football program — one that reflects this university’s values and its unique relationship to the game of football,” Swarbrick said.

Terms of the contract were not disclosed. The announcement comes five days before signing day, with Kelly on the road recruiting.

Kelly thanked the university’s leadership for their confidence in him in a statement released by the school.

“I coach football because I believe there are few better avenues for impacting the lives of young men, and I am certain that there is no better place to do that than the University of Notre Dame,” he said.

Kelly upset some Irish fans when he interviewed for the head coaching job with the Philadelphia Eagles immediately after the Irish were routed 42-14 by Alabama 42-14 in the national championship three years ago. But he told reporters last month in the days leading up to the Fiesta Bowl that he wasn’t curious anymore about coaching in the NFL.